Peter Navarro, the Trump administration’s director of trade policy, said Tuesday that China is guilty of conducting “four kills” in its mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Navarro shared a list with Fox News host Sean Hannity that included allegations of spawning the COVID-19 virus and covering it up, and allowing infected Chinese citizens to travel the world. It also says the country cornered the market on personal protective equipment (PPE), then sold it on the global market for profit and sent America “counterfeit tests.”
“The Chinese might call it the four kills, the killing of Americans,” Navarro said. “They spawned the virus probably in that P-4 lab right there in China. And then they hid the virus behind the shield of the World Health Organization,” Navarro said in reference to reports that the Wuhan Institute of Virology potentially allowed the coronavirus to escape from its labs.
“What that did over a six-week period allowed hundreds of thousands of Wuhanians to get on aircraft and see the world. Why on earth would they do that?” Navarro asked. “And this is just disgusting. What they did is they vacuumed up all of the worlds …. protective personal equipment, 2 billion masks … That’s why in Milan, New York, and other places our people didn’t have them.” (RELATED: China Critic Gordon Chang Says There Is ‘Zero Credence’ To The Claim That Wuhan Lab Had Nothing To Do With Coronavirus Outbreak)
Navarro noted that having cornered the market on PPE, China then sold it back to countries around the world for an outrageous profit.
“What they are doing is profiteering from this crisis, charging prices for a 50 cent mask of three, four, five dollars and more and sending us counterfeit tests,” he said. “That’s the four kills. What’s puzzling to me is why the mainstream media and the national Democrats don’t get that,” Navarro continued, citing a PEW poll that Navarro called a “stunning affirmation of President [Donald] Trump’s leadership.” (RELATED: Mike Pompeo Blames Chinese Communist Party For Global ‘Suffering’ Due To COVID-19)
A woman wearing protective gear adjusts her glasses in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicentre of China’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song
“Over 90% of Americans see China as a major threat. Over 70% have an unfavorable view of China,” the trade director said, noting that the opinion is shared “across party lines.”
“I can’t help but think of the 9% that don’t see China as a threat. They are the … fake news media and national Democrats like [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and [former Vice President] Joe Biden who basically don’t want to blame anybody but Donald Trump for this Wuhan virus.”
Critics accuse China of covering up evidence and testimony related to the coronavirus after the sickness broke out in the city of Wuhan. The Communist Party leadership is suspected of gagging physicians who tried to warn the world about the potential devastation of the COVID-19 virus and reports suggest the regime has been systematically lying about the number of people killed by the disease.